The unending war against environmental destruction

SOMEONE once observed that the human being is the only creature in this world who cuts trees, makes paper from them and writes “Save Trees” on it.

What an irony!

We say a lot about the need to preserve the environment, about the conservation of nature. Yet, we clear the land of trees that give us shade and the oxygen we breathe, for reasons as petty as those trees being in the way of our path to progress and comfort.

Vast tracts of rainforests have been cleared for timber. It has been estimated that as much as 81,000ha of rainforest is lost every day. That is equivalent to almost three times the size of Penang Island.

According to the World Resources Institute, a global research organisation that focuses on food, forests, water, energy, cities, climate and oceans, the tropics lost 11.9 million hectares of tree cover last year.

Data from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation shows that Malaysia lost 1.9 million hectares, or 8.6%, of forest cover in the 10 years from 1990.

Awareness of the risks and efforts to stop such destructive activities have usually been overwhelmed. Businesses - from logging to property and infrastructure development - are just too big and too powerful to fight.

Legislation has not done much better at curtailing such destruction. In Malaysia, there are laws to prevent wanton felling of trees in forest reserves, but poor enforcement is difficult given that such activities usually happen in inaccessible parts of the jungle.

So there is little wonder that folk in places such as Section 16 and Section 17 in Petaling Jaya have found it near impossible to preserve the few trees that they have lived with for decades.

The Petaling Jaya City Council put up a signboard last week to announce that 36 trees will be cut down to make way for a road widening project in Jalan Universiti and two property development projects.

Twenty-six trees have already been felled before the council paused in response to protests from residents.

The fact that the developer of one of the projects has pledged to replant almost four times as many trees has not done very much to assuage the residents’ anger. The trees have already been there since they moved in more than three decades ago.

It does not look like there is much recourse for the folk of Section 16 and Section 17, among the oldest residential areas in Petaling Jaya.

But that is how things work - the rich and powerful take what they want and destroy anything in the way, all at the expense of the weak and helpless.

We will rave and rant about the environmental impact for the next few weeks, then all will be forgotten by the general public, until the next episode.